The Phoenix Indian School, established by Congress in 1891, was an off reservation boarding school that served grammar school and high school students from Native families living on reservations in the Southwest.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs, known as the Office of Indian Affairs until 1947, ran schools like Phoenix both on and off Indian reservations. The schools were part of the Federal Government’s attempt to “Americanize” Native children through forced assimilation.
The school was closed in 1990.
